I was also given one for Christmas by a friend! Looking forward to trying it out.
It might just be me but I'm pretty sure I can taste the purifying water tabs when I use them.

Funny enough I also got the LifeStraw for christmas. But what I got was just the tube, and what I wanted was the bottle. After careful reflection but without actually trying it, I'm returning the tube and buying the bottle.

I have had the opportunity to try the bottle. I was on a very long day hike with a friend in BC this past summer, and he had one. We actually started the hike with less water than we planned to because one of my water bottles malfunctioned and leaked out in the car, but it was't a problem, because we would just fill his LifeStraw bottle when we passed creeks and drink from that. My only complaint is that the drinking spout is a bit finicky and only works when it's angled correctly, but once you get used to it it's not such an issue.

I can easily see this being great on canoe trips -- get thirsty while paddling, scoop up some water from the lake in the bottle and drink it through the spout. It's of course not a substitute for having a filtration/treatment system on trip, since you still need clean water for all non-drinking purposes (cooking, brushing teeth etc). But it does mean you don't have to worry about filtering the right amount of water before you head out for the day, or stopping en route to pump more.

Whereas I have a bit of trouble imagining how the tube by itself would be used in a non-emergency situation... yes you could scoop up water in any bottle and drink it through the straw, but it seems a lot less convenient, and who'd want to carry around a conventional water bottle and have to remember which one is the untreated water. Again, those are just my thoughts without having tried the stand-alone tube.

Sorry if I was unclear Shayne74 - the LifeStraw bottle system is what I used on the day hike in BC and want to buy now, and is linked on the word "bottle" in the beginning of my post.

I do like your idea of transitioning from a pump to a gravity filter once you have a LifeStraw, since you no longer absolutely need to have a drinking water production system available that can be used quickly while en route.

I prefer the actual katadyn But I have used them many times. 

keg wrote:

I've used the sawyer squeeze and mini version of it for a few years.  It works a lot like the lifestraw bottle system.  On the downside, filling the folding bag from a lake is a pain but it is very easy to attach inline to a water bladder or use as a gravity filter.

I use the Mini as well. 

I find the trick with filling the squeeze bag from a lake is to inflate it first and then fill it by displacing the air as you would with a pop bottle.

I like its versatility: it can be used to drink directly from a water source like a LifeStraw, attached to a pop bottle (or Nalgene with an adapter), with the squeeze bag, as a gravity filter, or inline as Keg mentioned.

A good alternative to consider if you are looking at a LifeStraw.

Last edited by Algonquintripper (3/22/2016 8:12 am)

I bought one for carrying in the back of my fishing vest so when im on the water for the day all I have to do is take a drink instead of carrying water. Tried it out Ice fishing 2 weeks ago. I'm not dead so?

Can't speak to ahubbs system but we bring an old "flask sized" bladder with us that we've cut the top off to fill the dirty water platypus from the lake. The old bladder with the top cut off acts as a scoop. Scoop up water and pour into dirty water bladder. Both bladders fold down for easy storage. Once filled, the sawyer mini works it's magic!

Fair enough. Thanks for the clarification.